Polish writer shortlisted for Man Booker Int’l Prize

Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights is one of six books shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize, which is awarded every year for a book translated into English and published in Britain.

Authors from France, Spain, South Korea, Hungary and Iraq are also on the shortlist for this year’s Man Booker International Prize.

A total of 108 books have been considered by a panel of five judges.

Tokarczuk’s Flights, which first appeared in Poland in 2007 under its Polish title Bieguni, has been translated into English by Jennifer Croft and published by Fitzcarraldo Editions. It is described by critics as a philosophical meditation on modern-day travel.

The winner of the 2018 Man Booker International Prize will be announced at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on May 22.

Thirty-six-year-old Tokarczuk is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed Polish writers. Flights won her the prestigious NIKE Polish literary prize. Two other of her books, Primeval and Other Times and House of Day, House of Night, are also available in English translations.

The Man Booker International Prize is distinct from the Man Booker Prize, which is given to works originally published in English.